A new class of 2D materials named “MXene” has recently received significant research interest as they have demonstrated great potential for the applications in batteries, supercapacitors, and electronic devices. However, the research on their thermal properties is still very limited. In this work, Ti3C2Tx films were prepared by the vacuum-assisted filtration of delaminated nano-flake Ti3C2Tx MXenes. The thermal and electrical conductivity of the Ti3C2Tx films were measured by the state-of-the-art T-type method. The results showed that the effective thermal conductivity of the films increased from 1.26 W·m−1·K−1 at 80 K to 2.84 W·m−1·K−1 at 290 K, while the electrical conductivity remained at 12,800 Ω−1·m−1 for the same temperature range. Thermal resistance model was applied to evaluate the inherent thermal conductivity of the Ti3C2Tx flakes, which was estimated to be in the range of tens to hundreds W·m−1·K−1.

Mussel-inspired approach was attempted to non-covalently functionalize the surfaces of boron nitride (BN) with self-polymerized dopamine coatings in order to reduce the interfacial thermal barrier and enhance the thermal conductivity of BN-containing composites. Compared to the polypropylene (PP) composites filled with pristine BN at the same filler content, thermal conductivity was much higher for those filled with both functionalized BN (f-BN) and maleic anhydride grafted PP (PP-g-ma) due to the improved filler dispersion and better interfacial filler-matrix compatibility, which facilitated the development of more thermal paths. Theoretical models were also applied to predict the composite thermal conductivity in which the Nielsen model was found to fit well with the experimental results, and the estimated effective aspect ratio of fillers well corresponded to the degree of filler aggregation as observed in the morphological study.